1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method of printing a document in multiple copies, and more particularly, when using a printer to print multiple copies of document originating in a computer, instead of creating a print image each time a document, i.e.,data, is to be printed, by storing the data in a storage device and then printing according to a predetermined print quantity, i.e., number of copies, in order to increase printing speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a printer is the most common device to review, store, and deliver a result from a computer in a printed document form to another person. Printers have become basic structural factors in multimedia, personal computers, facsimiles, electronic cash registers and automatic cash tellers; and currently, daisy wheel type printers, pin type printers, inkjet type printers, and laser type printers have been developed, and especially inkjet printers and laser printers are the most commonly distributed types.
Recently, along with fast developing office automation equipments such as scanner and facsimile, the demand for a printer is increasing and office automation equipment has been developed with high technology in order to expand its own functions. Moreover, separate pieces of office automation equipment are being combined into a single machine which alleviates users of an economical burden and requires less installation space, thus products with multi-document printing functions are being manufactured and sold.
The method of using the printer to print data in multiple copies is to set-up the printing copies in the printer driver, then select whether to print the data in a collated copy type or an uncollated copy type. The difference between collated copy and uncollated copy is as follows: When printing, for example, a three page document with two copies each, the collated copy type prints the first, second, and third pages successively and then prints the first, second, and third pages again, while the uncollated copy type prints the first page twice, the second page twice, and then the third page twice. Thus after printing the data, the uncollated copy type has a disadvantage of having to arrange the pages in order while the pages of the collated copy type are already arranged in proper order.
However, though such a conventional collated copy type, as described above, may be convenient due to not requiring the rearranging of the total printed pages, when printing multiple copies of a document, a respective print image is created for each of the first, second and third pages for the first copy and then, after the first printing operation, the respective print images of the first, second and third pages have to be created again in order to print the second copy. Thus, since the print image of each page has to be recreated, there is a disadvantage of taking a long time to complete the print operation.
The present invention is created to solve such problems. The object of the present invention is to provide a printing device with an increased print speed and method of using such a device to print data in multiple copies when printing data using the collated copy type which does not need page arranging. In the printing device, the original print image created at the beginning of the print process is stored in a storage device, thereby overcoming a decreased print speed.
To achieve the above objects and other advantages, there is provided a printing device to print data in multiple copies comprising a data register unit to set the output mode in order to print data generated at a computer in multiple copies, a data conversion unit to convert the data into an output data, a data storage unit to store the converted output data, a data output unit to print the output data stored in the data storage unit according to an output mode preset in the data register unit and a data control unit which generates a control signal to store the converted data converted in the data conversion unit at the data storage unit, and generates a control signal to print the data stored in the data storage unit at the data output unit according to the output mode set in the data register unit.
Preferably, the output mode is a collated copy type such that the created pages of a document are arranged and printed sequentially. In addition, the output data is a print image made from the data at the data output unit and converted to PCL (Printer Control Language) for print at the data print unit.
Additionally, the present invention provides a method of printing a data in multiple copies comprising steps of determining whether there is data to be printed, setting a number of print copies of the data when a mode is set to print the data in multiple copies, storing a created output information of the data in a storage device after the setting stage, when a command to print the data has been received, checking whether the printed copies correspond to the predetermined number of copies, after printing appropriate pages using the stored output information; and reprinting the predetermined printing pages using the output information, when the printed copies do not correspond to the predetermined copies.
Preferably, the mode to print the multiple copies is a collated copy type such that the data is printed sequentially in the created order. In addition, the output information is a print image made from the data at the data output unit and converted to PCL (Printer Control Language) for print at the printer.
Moreover, the storage device is a hard disk of the computer which is used to store the output information of multiple copies in order to reuse it.
The objectives, characteristics, and advantages of the present invention now will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiment of the invention are shown.